The Time of Change

Papal Interference

"Right," I reply a bit weakly, breathing slow. "What's the signal? Where's it coming from?"

Tasha downs the rest of her drink in one gulp and sighs in contentment. Another strong whiff of it hits me full in the face and it invades my nostrils, seeping up into my brain along with whatever I drank. They intermingle up there, meeting up and mixing together to make my body fuzzy and my mind detached. As if I'm watching. What am I watching?

"It's a settlement," says Tasha, again leaning toward me suggestively. The sheets of the bed shift ever so slightly under her. "Human colony, level two." She wrinkles her nose with a chuckle, and adds, "A farm, basically." I nod a couple of times, or at least I think I do. I can feel my head moving and see her form shaking a bit in my vision but I can't really be certain if I have complete control over my actions, if they're under my volition. Are they? Maybe. I dimly flick a piece of lint off the space of fabric between our bodies -- which is smaller than I thought was possible, considering our legs aren't quite touching yet -- and say, "Right. Anyone been for a look?"

"Any one ship lands, the rest will follow," she replies, sounding businesslike and formal. I don't like it. Her eyes twinkle with that odd light I still can't place solidly and her head moves a fraction of a centimeter closer to mine, but I notice it. I can't move, though. Or if I can, I don't do it. Do I want to? I should hope so. I don't think I do, however. Her leg brushes against mine and something cold, like ice water, drenches my spine. Neither a pleasant nor unpleasant feeling. Just unexpected. Yes, you want to move! You need to move. What are you talking about?

But do I really?

It's the liquid, it's whatever she gave you to drink. You're talking like a madman.

That's what I am. That's what we all are. A madman. Why shouldn't I talk like one?

Stop, all this wretched noise in my head. Stop.

Who else would keep you company when everyone else has gone?

And everyone will be gone, you know, at some point. It's just who you are.

Tasha continues talking, breaking me free from the many different voices in my head. They're softer than usual, but I still hear them. "There will be bloodshed. Fortunately we got here first, shielded the planet. We maintain the truce by blocking them."

I try to think through the haze. "Daleks, Cybermen, one of that lot, could break through your defenses." She nods, giving me a look simply dripping with seduction. An alarm goes off somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, close enough that I can hear it but just far enough that I can't stop it or tell why it's blaring like that. She's just a woman, it's fine, calm yourself, Doctor. Just a woman. I blink, warding away the alert signals with a tiny shake of my head. "Perhaps," Tasha says, "but they're afraid, remember? Nobody wants to go first."

My body thrusts toward her without my doing and I nearly fall off the bed trying to stop myself. "I do," I breathe. She groans, "I was counting on it."